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The Aligarh Muslim University is a premier Central University included as an institution of ‘National Importance’ in the VII Schedule of the Constitution of India with several faculties and maintained institutions drawing students from all over the country and from foreign countries including SAARC and Commonwealth Countries as well. Imbibing the objective tenor of the west and preserving the oriental tradition, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the great visionary, established the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College on May 24, 1875 with a resolve to initiate western education amongst Muslims and liberate the Muslim mind from out moded patterns of thought and behavior. Sir Syed thus visualized its future:
….. This college may expand into a University whose sons shall go forth……..to preach the gospel of free enquiry, of large hearted toleration and pure morality”.
This vision became a reality when in 1920 this College matured to the status of the Aligarh Muslim University ever expanding, diversifying and relentlessly working towards keeping its promise to the commitment of its founder. At the very inception Sir Syed made a distinction between Talim (education) and Tarbiyat (training), the former preparing an individual for an occupation and the latter geared toward achieving refinement. The residential character of this University where most of the staff and students reside on the campus itself contributes greatly to the country’s multi-religious, multi-social and multi-lingual character.
There are twelve faculties and 91 Departments of Studies with a teaching strength of 2,530 faculty members disseminating knowledge to more than twenty eight thousand students. Amongst some of the chief institutions maintained by the university are Zakir Hussain College of Engineering & Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College & Hospital, A.K. Tibbiya College, Institute of Ophthalmology, Ziauddin Dental College, the University Polytechnic, the University Women’s Polytechnic, Institute of Islamic Studies, Centre of West Asian Studies, Centre for Advance Study, Department of History, and five high schools including one for blind students.
The Womens’College is an integral part of AMU. The pioneers of womens’ education, Sheikh Abdullah and his wife Ala Bi, resisting severe opposition, eventually succeeded in supplementing to Sir Syed’s Mission by establishing this institutions that admits more than 1500 girls to various undergraduate courses.
